Waterfowl Blind Permit Drawings Are Saturday

The 2013 edition of Tennessee’s long-standing tradition of hand-drawn duck blind drawings will be held at the regular sites across the state on Saturday.

Registration will be held from 7-10 a.m. and the drawings will begin at 10 a.m. at most locations. For more information, visit the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency website, www.tnwildlife.org.

While hand drawings will be held for the majority of the locations, a computerized drawing system for blind sites on Bogota and Thorny Cypress Wildlife Management Areas in Dyer County and the four units on the Chickamauga WMA (Candies Creek, Johnson Bottoms, Rogers Creek, and Yellow Creek) will again be conducted for this season. The application period is Sept. 4-Oct. 9 for these areas.

The 2013-14 state waterfowl seasons will be set at the Aug. 22-23 meeting of the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission. The August meeting will be held in Knoxville at the Holiday Inn West at Cedar Bluff.

The City of Cleveland will be offering lifeguard review and certification courses this spring. The lifeguard review course costs $100 and the lifeguard certification course costs $200. All classes will be held at the Denning Center, 350 Central Avenue, Cleveland, Tn. 37311. For registration and additional questions, contact Kelly McClanahan at kmcclanahan@clevelandtn.gov ... (click for more)

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park will provide a one-hour, ranger-facilitated discussion on the environmental impact of the Civil War on Chattanooga on Sunday, March 4 at 2 p.m. This program will take place at Orchard Knob Reservation in Chattanooga, at the intersection of Ivy Street and Orchard Knob Avenue. "In his novel, The Two Towers, author J.R.R. Tolkien ... (click for more)

The County Commission has approved a sizable pay raise for its four magistrates, taking them from the current $66,000 per year to $92,000 by 2021. The raises will take effect beginning with new terms for magistrates. Two of the current magistrates are up for re-appointment in May. Their pay level will become $80,000. It will rise by $4,000 per year until reaching the $92,000. ... (click for more)

Sandra and I are saddened this morning after learning of the death of Billy Graham. We rejoice today, because Mr. Graham once said "It will be reported that Billy Graham has died, but that won't be the truth. He said the truth is that he had only moved to a new location". I remember when we named 15th Street as Billy Graham Avenue, his daughter Gigi came for the dedication ... (click for more)

For several years in my life it seemed my bad arm and I spent more time at Mayo Clinic than we did in my own house. I hold the record for the most different infections in an elbow at the same time, and my medical charts never had my name on them, instead I was simply, “Mr. Complication.” One morning in particular I spent a horrible three hours in the “nerve conduction lab” with ... (click for more)